Hello dreamboat.

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

My current favorite thing, right here. It’s right up there! I want to faceplant into that bowl and resurface in four months when it’s sunny and hot outside. And preferably, I’ll be swimsuit ready.

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

This recipe is doing double duty today.

First, Valentine’s Day! This is the simplest and lightest meal that you can make for your loved one. Or WITH your loved one, if the idea doesn’t make you roll your eyes ten thousand times in the kitchen. (not I… not I.)

Second, when Lent rolls around I tend to share a few of the seafood recipes we are loving, mostly salmon. Even though there are quite a few tilapia recipes on my site, we haven’t eaten tilapia in probably over a year – but use those recipes I have for some other flakier, white fish. I was almost ready to share a new salmon recipe this week then I’m like NO. No no no no no no.

Get out of the box! I have a million salmon recipes here. We eat it often, but I wanted to share something else that we’ve been loving and eating at home. And it’s different. And shockingly, EASY!

Because you don’t have to cook it.

Okay, don’t freak out.

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

Funny story. The first time I ate actual sashimi was with Eddie. I don’t know if it was one of our first dates or in this limbo period where we were just talking but not necessarily dating – since a majority of this readership consists of millennials, tell me something. When you met your significant other for the first time, did you do one of the text-all-day things? When Eddie and I first exchanged numbers, we texted nonstop for days. In fact, for a few of those days I was on the west coast and three hours behind him – and I still remember texting him at 1AM pacific standard time, so 4AM eastern standard time. These days I can barely get him to stay awake until 10PM to watch a movie with me, whomp whomp.

Anyhoo – we did that texting thing a bunch before actually dating. I know, I said it was a millennial thing.

So on one of our real first dates, we ate sushi! I had eaten rolls before, but I don’t think I’d had pieces of raw fish, straight up, until that moment.

(I realize that there has never been a time when “funny story” is just a figure of speech as much as RIGHT NOW.)

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

And then.

Something terrible happened.

Eddie got the flu. But he got the flu a day after we ate sushi. I know you know where this is going.

It wasn’t the sushi that did it, he was truly sick. But since then, the thought of anything sushi related turns his stomach. It’s the WORST. For me, of course. That’s what this is all about, right?

But I get it. Earlier this year, on the day that I made this recipe, I got mastitis. I’ve never been so sick in my life and while that pasta was incredibly delicious, I can’t even look at the photos.

Universe, why did it have to happen with sushi though?

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

Luckily (for me, again), a year or two ago we ordered seared ahi tuna while out and Eddie actually ate it and loved it. LOVED it! I think it was the whole “seared” thing that sold him.

So with the promise of rice and a few other ingredients (and let’s face it: tortilla chips), I convinced him to taste this delicious tuna and fall back in love. At least for the time being. And he did just that, so much so that we ate it again for the Super Bowl Sunday night. Lots of tortilla chips involved in that sitch.

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

Let’s talk bowls!

The base is rice – whatever rice you want. I made sticky rice from short grain white rice I found at a local Asian grocery store but it was a bit of a process. You can use whatever you have on hand and most importantly, whatever you love! Making the rice is probably the most time consuming part of this entire recipe.

You want lots of flavor for the tuna, and I wildly adore toasted sesame oil. Mix some delicious ingredients together and toss the tuna in the mess for tons of flavor. Add some thinly sliced scallions and sesame seeds and you’re good to go! If you want to skip the rice, you can scoop it all up with tortilla chips.

YES.

BRB, need a chip.

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

Totally optional but incredible: adding chopped avocado and pineapple. Add those right before serving or eating. I like to do cucumber half moons and some seaweed salad if I have it. The easiest thing for me is to buy a seaweed salad packet and follow the directions, which usually just include rehydrating the seaweed and tossing it with some things you have on hand like the toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar. SO GOOD.

If you’ve never had a poke bowl or get freaked out at the idea of preparing this yourself, seriously – go buy the tortilla chips. Or even better: make them yourself. And scoop up every last bit of love!

ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

Ahi Poke Bowls with Pineapple and Avocado

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Ingredients

Instructions 

  • Place the tuna in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, oil, vinegar, sesame seeds, ginger and garlic. Pour over the tuna and toss to coat. Stir in the green onion. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.
  • Right before serving, stir in the cubed avocado and the pineapple.
  • To make the bowls, place 1 cup of rice in the bowl. Cover with a handful of cucumbers (I like to toss mine in toasted sesame oil), seaweed salad (see post above for my tips, I buy a packaged one and follow the directions) extra sliced avocado and a big scoop of the tuna and marinade. Top with extra sesame seeds. This is wonderful eaten with tortilla chips!
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ahi poke bowl with avocado and pineapple I howsweeteats.com

i love you THISMUCH.